Forest Mage by Robin Hobb ISBN: 9780060758295
Series: Soldier Son #2
Also in this series: Shaman's Crossing
Published by HarperCollins on January 1, 2006
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 726
Format: Paperback
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Plague has ravaged the prestigious King's Cavalla of Gernia, decimating the ranks of both cadets and instructors. Yet Nevare Burvelle has made an astonishingly robust recovery, defeating his sworn nemesis while in the throes of the disease and freeing himself—he believes—from the Speck magic that infected him. And now he is journeying home to Widevale, anticipating a tender reunion with his beautiful fiancée, Carsina, and a bright future as a commissioned officer.
But there is no haven in the bosom of his kinfolk, for his nights are haunted by grim visions of treachery—and his days are tormented by a strange side-effect of the plague that shames his family and repulses the lady of his heart. And as the still-potent magic in his blood roars to life, Nevare realizes a terrible truth: that the enemy who seeks to destroy everything he loves dwells perhaps not without but within him.
Characters: 9, the MC, Nevare, really continues to be a young man who needs others to tell him what to do, which is slightly maddening but makes every secondary character important. Without going into spoiler territory, I have hopes that he will finally fully grow up in the next book. Epiny, Spink, Yaril, Carsina, Sgt. Duril, and a few others from book 1 make an appearance, but a handful of new characters. Hobb, as ever, does a great job of keeping each character individual, with their own unique voice and drives. And I was eager to see what happened to each of them.
Atmosphere: 9, the scenes were slightly more immersive for me in this book than the previous one, as the military setting gives way to more of a frontier settlement setting (which I have more of a basis for understanding). There were no moments where I was kicked out of the story, though my sense of immersion in it waxed and waned over the 726 pages.
Writing: 9, it’s no secret that I’m a fan of Robin Hobb’s writing. There were a few instances of redundant word use that my eyes snagged on (a minor complaint, to be sure), but for the most part it was a great balance of internal voice, description, action, and dialogue.
Plot: 8, in many ways, I felt like this story could’ve been condensed without losing anything. The major beats were filled with tension, but the valleys between them dragged on. It definitely follows that old standard about putting the MC in peril and then progressively making it worse, until the reader is convinced there’s no way out. And that kept me pushing through the more boring/unnecessary points to the next peak. Honestly, my one big complaint about this book is that uneven pacing.
Intrigue: 10, even with the small issues I had with it, I picked this up daily and read 50-170 pages in a single sitting (depending on what else was going on that day). It was hard not to be invested in the story, after things went from bad to worse. Just as a TW if you need it, though: this book deals heavily with fatphobia (being present in the plot, not the author being fatphobic).
Logic: 9, we learn a lot more about the Speck magic in this novel, and all of it fit with that we’ve seen so far. Additionally, the characters act in accordance with their own motives and fears, even to the detriment of others (and Nevare remains narrow-minded by nature when dealing with a problem). Toward the end, I felt like there was a little tweaking of things with respect to the magic, just to make the plot work, but it wasn’t anything more than a tiny annoyance.
Enjoyment: 9, I liked the first book, but you never know with the 2nd in a series, do you? It went in a totally different direction than I anticipated, and was more painful than the first book to read, but also had me just as hooked.
I read this as my February book for the Year in Aeldia (got to the forest).
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
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